Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Texas blues singer Big Walter Price. Enjoy!

"I think there are many times when it would be most efficient to use nuclear weapons. However, the public opinion in this country and throughout the world throw up their hands in horror when you mention nuclear weapons, just because of the propaganda that's been fed to them."

-- General Curtis LeMay

News and Opinion

Worth a full read, here's an excerpt to get you started:

Are Trump and Putin Opening Pandora’s Box?

How did we get here? The path to the current crisis can be traced to September 2009, when President Barack Obama announced a new approach to American missile defense in Europe against long-range Iranian missiles. It would replace the George W. Bush administration’s plan for what was called Ground-Based Missile Defense sites in Poland and Romania, and Mr. Obama described his new Aegis-based European Phased Adaptive Approach as a “smarter and swifter” defense system. The installations would have a larger number of smaller and slower interceptors that would be guided by Aegis radars, normally used on United States Navy warships.

What Mr. Obama apparently did not know was that none of the radars associated with his program could see long-range Iranian warheads at a long-enough range to launch interceptors. That was a scandalous blunder, ascribable only to a lack of technical information from the Department of Defense and a failure of the White House and State Department policy staffs to adequately vet for the president the implications of the proposed change.

President Obama was probably also not told that the “Aegis ashore” installations in Poland and Romania could be armed quickly with offensive cruise missiles that would pose a threat of an immediate and ferocious attack on European Russia with only short warning. In other words, the decision to place Aegis installations ashore in Europe produced no credible missile defense capabilities for the United States, but did create installations that could be rapidly armed with dozens — or hundreds — of offensive cruise missiles.

That is what the Russians have been reacting to since shortly after Mr. Obama decided to proceed with his plan. ... Western news organizations have often treated as obfuscation the Russian claim that American missile defense installations have an offensive capability. But publicly available information makes it clear that the Aegis-based systems in Eastern Europe, if equipped with cruise missiles, would indeed violate the I.N.F.

Russian state TV shows map of potential US nuclear targets

Russian state television has broadcast a map of the US showing military facilities Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, in a report that was unusual even by its own bellicose standards. The targets included the Pentagon and the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland. A hypersonic missile Russia is developing would be able to hit them in less than five minutes, it said.

Last week, Vladimir Putin said Moscow was militarily ready for a “Cuban missile-style” crisis if the US wanted one. With tensions rising over Russian fears that the US might deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe as a cold war-era arms-control treaty unravels, Putin has said Russia would be forced to respond by placing hypersonic nuclear missiles on submarines near US waters.

Putin has said Russia does not want a new arms race, but he has dialled up his military rhetoric. Some analysts have seen his approach as a tactic to try to re-engage the US in talks about the strategic balance between the two powers, which Moscow has long pushed for, with mixed results.

US in Venezuela: 'You cannot be the tormetor & play yourself as a good Samaritan'

An excellent article worth reading in full, there's far too much detail to abstract:

John Pilger: The War on Venezuela is Built on Lies

For all the chavistas’ faults — such as allowing the Venezuelan economy to become hostage to the fortunes of oil and never seriously challenging big capital and corruption — they brought social justice and pride to millions of people and they did it with unprecedented democracy. ...

Since Chavez’s death in 2013, his successor NicolásMaduro has shed his derisory label in the Western press as a “former bus driver” and become Saddam Hussein incarnate. His media abuse is ridiculous. On his watch, the slide in the price of oil has caused hyperinflation and played havoc with prices in a society that imports almost all its food; yet, as the journalist and film-maker Pablo Navarrete reported this week, Venezuela is not the catastrophe it has been painted. “There is food everywhere,” he wrote. “I have filmed lots of videos of food in markets [all over Caracas] … it’s Friday night and the restaurants are full.”

In 2018, Maduro was re-elected president. A section of the opposition boycotted the election, a tactic tried against Chavez. The boycott failed: 9,389,056 people voted; 16 parties participated and six candidates stood for the presidency. Maduro won 6,248,864 votes, or 68 percent. On election day, I spoke to one of the 150 foreign election observers. “It was entirely fair,” he said. “There was no fraud; none of the lurid media claims stood up. Zero. Amazing really.” ...

Researchers at the University of the West of England studied the BBC‘s reporting of Venezuela over a 10-year period. They looked at 304 reports and found that only three of these referred to any of the positive policies of the government. For the BBC, Venezuela’s democratic record, human rights legislation, food programs, healthcare initiatives and poverty reduction did not happen. The greatest literacy program in human history did not happen, just as the millions who march in support of Maduro and in memory of Chavez, do not exist.

When asked why she filmed only an opposition march, the BBC reporter Orla Guerin tweeted that it was “too difficult” to be on two marches in one day. A war has been declared on Venezuela, of which the truth is “too difficult” to report. It is too difficult to report the collapse of oil prices since 2014 as largely the result of criminal machinations by Wall Street. It is too difficult to report the blocking of Venezuela’s access to the U.S.-dominated international financial system as sabotage. It is too difficult to report Washington’s “sanctions” against Venezuela, which have caused the loss of at least $6 billion in Venezuela’s revenue since 2017, including $2 billion worth of imported medicines, as illegal, or the Bank of England’s refusal to return Venezuela’s gold reserves as an act of piracy.

The reporter as clown may be the final stage of much of mainstream journalism’s degeneration.

The Coup Has Failed & Now the U.S. Is Looking to Wage War: Venezuelan Foreign Minister Speaks Out

Fake president Juan Guaido, having failed yet again, cagily asks "other countries" to consider a military attack on Venezuela. The idiot from Florida, Marco Rubio seems quite excited by the prospect.

Juan Guaidó: 'keep all options open' to remove Venezuela's Maduro from power

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó is set to meet US Vice-President Mike Pence on Monday, after asking other countries to consider “all options” to remove President Nicolás Maduro from power. Guaidó’s comments came after a day of violence, as opposition supporters spent hours trying to break a government blockade and carry food and medical supplies into Venezuela. At least four people were killed and more than 300 hundred injured.

“The events of today oblige me to take a decision,” Guaidó said on Twitter, “to formally propose to the international community that we should keep all options open to achieve the liberation of our homeland.”

Pence will announce “concrete steps” and “clear actions” at a summit of the regional Lima Group in Bogota on Monday, a senior US official told reporters on Sunday. “What happened yesterday is not going to deter us from getting humanitarian aid into Venezuela,” the official said. ...

[Guaidó's] comments on Saturday raised concerns he might be considering a military intervention and were soon picked up by US hawks including the Florida senator Marco Rubio. “The grave crimes committed today by the Maduro regime have opened the door to various potential multilateral actions not on the table just 24 hours ago,” Rubio said in response to Guaidó, also on Twitter.

Venezuela - There Was A Riot At The Border But What Else Did The "Aid" Stunt Achieve?

Yesterday's "humanitarian aid" stunt at the Colombian-Venezuelan border was supposed to achieve four points:

1. to breach the border and thereby open venues that could later be used for the passage of arms and fighters,
2. to incite large scale defections from the Venezuelan army and police forces,
3. to demonstrate to the outside world that the Random Guyaido, who declared himself president, has a large following and is thereby legitimate enough to support him,
4. to deliver justification for further steps against Venezuela.

Point 1 was clearly not achieved. A few hundred young men attacked the Venezuelan National Guard force that closed off the border. Attempts were made to ram "aid" trucks through. Random Guyaido was nowhere to be seen. The whole thing ended in a minor riot. The violent attackers received gasoline and made Molotov cocktails to attack the guards and set the "aid" trucks alight. Here is a video that proves that. The riots continued (vid) until about midnight but neither any rioters nor the aid passed through the border.

The Venezuelan police do not use gasolines or flamethrowers, on the other hand the opponents were using Molotov cocktails.
The press without questioning anything, blamed the government of Maduro burned trucks that were on the side of the opponents.

This is propaganda#Venezuela pic.twitter.com/HEUApTk0up

— Enrique (@garoukike) February 24, 2019

... The attempt to incite defections of Venezuelan security forces largely failed. A handful of National Guard foot soldiers went over to the Colombian side. But the National Guard lines held well even under a hail of stones and fire and the units were quite disciplined in taking and holding their positions. The military of Venezuela stays firmly on the side of the state.

The "aid" nonsense did not help to brush up Guaido's legitimacy. Defying a court order Guaido left Venezuela and entered Colombia. If he ever goes back he will have to go to jail. The large mobilization inside and outside of Venezuela he had promised completely failed to appear. The melee at the border crossing only showed that his followers are a gang of brutal thugs.

The last aim of yesterday's stunt was to give justification for the next steps towards "regime change" - whatever those steps may be. The success of achieving that aim was never in question. ... U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will arrive in Colombia tomorrow to tell Guaido how to proceed. The focus will most likely be on how to start a sabotage campaign and a low level guerrilla war within Venezuela.

Mainstream media coverage from the Miami Herald, much of the article is crap, here are the good parts:

‘Maduro must go,’ Pence says as he calls on region to seize Venezuela oil assets

Vice President Mike Pence on Monday asked the region to seize Venezuela’s oil assets, revoke visas and turn the screws on the Nicolás Maduro regime amid a brewing humanitarian crisis. But he stopped short of calling for the use of force to oust a man he says represents a threat to the hemisphere.

Addressing a meeting of the Lima Group in Bogotá, Colombia, Pence said it was time for the region to take a tougher stand in ousting Maduro and supporting interim President Juan Guaidó. Pence asked the bloc of 14 largely Latin American countries to follow the U.S. lead and revoke visas of government officials and seize the assets of the state-run PDVSA oil company and hand them over to Guaidó’s representatives. While Colombia, Canada and Panama have rolled out sanctions, he said it was time for others to take concrete steps.

The high-profile meeting comes after Maduro shocked many in the international community over the weekend by using force to stop the delivery of humanitarian aid from Colombia and Brazil. The ensuing clashes left hundreds injured and a handful dead, mainly in an indigenous community in southern Brazil. Pence said Washington was undeterred and would continue positioning aid depots in region for the day when the help could be delivered. He also pledged $56 million — in addition to the estimated $140 million already spent — to support countries that have been receiving Venezuelan migrants.

Bernie, are you f-ing kidding me! if you buy the Trump, Bolton, Abrams, Rubio line, “humanitarian intervention” and collude in the destruction of Venezuela, you cannot be credible candidate for President of the USA. Or, maybe you can, maybe you’re the perfect stooge for the 1 %.

— Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) February 23, 2019

Bernie Repeats CIA Talking Points On Venezuela

An Ocean of Lies on Venezuela: Abby Martin & UN Rapporteur Expose Coup

Burning Aid: An Interventionist Deception on Colombia-Venezuela Bridge?

The Trump administration’s coup against Venezuela culminated on February 23 with US-backed opposition attempting to ram several trucks loaded with boxes of USAID “humanitarian aid” across the previously unused Francisco de Paula Santander bridge connecting Colombia to Venezuela. The trucks failed to reach the other side — but that was never really the point of the stunt. ... On the Santander bridge this February 23, the guarimberos rained down a hail of rocks and molotov cocktails on Venezuelan national guardsmen holding the line against the USAID trucks. Suddenly, the trucks caught fire and the masked youth began unloading boxes of aid before they burned. Within minutes, pro-opposition media reported that the Venezuelan national guard forces were responsible for the fires.

The total lack of evidence of Venezuelan culpability did not stop Cuban-American Senator Marco Rubio from tweeting this accusation from nearby in Cucuta, Colombia. ... By blaming the Venezuelan government for burning the USAID trucks, Rubio was clearly attempting to establish the casus belli he had been seeking. Yet neither he nor anyone in the “whole world” had seen the national guard set the fire, as he claimed. In fact, the evidence pointed in the exact opposite direction, suggesting that the masked opposition youth had torched the trucks themselves.

Colombian writer Humberto Ortiz produced footage from a pro-opposition channel showing what appears to be the exact moment when a guarimbero sets the aid on fire with a molotov cocktail:

Creo que @NoticiasUno nos puede ayudar a aclarar si la molotov lanzada por este muchacho pudo causar el incendio del camión. pic.twitter.com/UCR7x9qNkA

— Humberto Ortiz (@graffitiborrao) February 24, 2019

Telesur reporter Madelein Garcia published photographs showing a guarimbero with a gas canister next to one of the burning trucks:

1. #ÚltimoMinuto| en #exclusiva @teleSURtv aquí las evidencias de quienes quemaron el camión con supuesta ayuda humanitaria en #Ureña, fueron los mismo guarimberos pic.twitter.com/4gv2K54NpE

— Madelein Garcia (@madeleintlSUR) February 23, 2019

Having failed miserably at every phase of the coup he had attempted engineer, Rubio ended the day with a Twitter tantrum that peaked with a call for “multilateral actions” against Venezuela’s government. What form that action could take is still unclear, but it will certainly be justified by a series of baseless claims about what took place on the Santander bridge.

The real humanitarian aid: Inside Venezuela’s state-subsidized communal markets

'Not Every Option Is on the Table': EU Leaders Reject Idea of US-Led Military Intervention in Venezuela

The European Union and the Spanish government on Monday both rejected calls by the Trump administration and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to keep "every option on the table" to remove President Nicolas Maduro from power—saying they do not support, nor would they would participate, in military intervention.

"Not every option is on the table," Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told the Spanish news outlet Efe on Sunday. "We have clearly warned that we would not support—and would roundly condemn—any foreign military intervention, which is something we hope won't happen."

"We must avoid a military intervention," a spokeswoman for E.U. diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini, agreed. "What is explicitly quite clear, from our point of view, is that we need a peaceful political and democratic and Venezuelan-owned resolution of this crisis. This obviously excludes the use of force."

The message from the EU and Borrell followed violence at the Venezuela-Colombia border over the weekend as Guaido supporters attempted to break through the Venezuelan border with food and medical supplies in what critics have characterized as a deliberate provocation disguised as a "humanitarian aid" mission led by the Trump administration. The U.S. has also led calls for the international community to recognize Guaido as the president of Venezuela.

UN nuclear watchdog: Iran maintains compliance with 2015 pact

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog confirmed Friday that Iran remained within key parameters set in the 2015 nuclear pact it signed with the U.S. and other world powers.

The news that Iran is respecting the nuclear limits, contained in a confidential report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that was uncovered by Reuters, comes as the Trump administration has renewed U.S. sanctions on the country after deciding to withdraw from the deal last year. ...

The IAEA certified that Iran was complying with the deal as recently as August. Tehran has maintained its nuclear program is solely for defensive purposes.

Okinawa rejects new US military base but Abe likely to press on

Voters on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa have rejected the controversial relocation of a US military base in a referendum, according to local media, but the result is likely to be ignored by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

Kyodo news agency said its projection based on exit polls indicated that more than a quarter of Okinawa’s 1.16 million eligible voters had opposed the plan: a threshold that requires the island’s governor, Denny Tamaki, to “respect” its outcome. The public broadcaster NHK said a majority of voters had come out against the move supported by the Japanese and US governments.

Sunday’s non-binding referendum asked voters if they opposed, supported or held neither opinion on the construction of a military base in Henoko, a fishing village on the island’s northeast coast that is home to coral reefs and one of the few remaining habitats of the dugong. [Similar to manatee. -js]

The new facility is supposed to replace the marines’ Futenma airbase, located in the middle of a densely populated city on the island. Futenma has attracted complaints about crimes committed by service personnel, noise and the threat of aircraft accidents in an area close to homes and schools. Critics say the Henoko base will destroy the area’s delicate marine ecosystem and threaten the safety of 2,000 residents living near the site.

Heh. AIPAC strongly criticizes Netanyahu to silence AIPAC critics, then 2 days later announces that it is "honored" that Bibi will address their annual convention. What a great bunch.

AIPAC condemns Netanyahu pact with extremists

Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to enter an electoral pact with a party of ultranationalist extremists has drawn rare criticism from an influential pro-Israel group in the US. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), which has generally given unflinching support to the Israeli leader during his 13 years in power, called the Jewish Power party “racist and reprehensible”. Aipac, which receives Netanyahu as a celebrity, with adoring crowds at conferences, joined a chorus of condemnation worldwide from Jewish and Zionist groups shocked by the agreement with the far-right party.

Netanyahu helped orchestrate the merger last week of Jewish Power with another ultranationalist ally, Jewish Home, that would give him a better chance of forming a majority government in an election on 9 April. ... A former long-time Aipac official, David Kreizelman, said the group “very rarely” comments on domestic Israeli politics. “It’s pretty major. It’s a very strong statement,” he said.

Jewish Power’s leaders are ideological successors to Meir Kahane, a US-born rabbi who served one term in parliament 1984. His Kach movement was later banned by Israel and the US under anti-terrorism laws. ... After moving to the US and setting up the militant Jewish Defense League, he was imprisoned for bombmaking and later assassinated in 1990 by an Egyptian-born American gunman. The FBI regards the Jewish Defense League as a rightwing terrorist group after two members attempted to bomb a California mosque. ...

A recent poll suggested the alliance might receive as many as five seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Netanyahu has defended his merger as a way to form a rightwing coalition in April and accused his critics of “hypocrisy and double standards”. ... [D]espite the criticism, Aipac announced two days later that it was honoured Netanyahu would address its annual meeting in Washington next month.

How an allegedly violent white nationalist spent decades in the U.S. military undetected

Christopher Hasson, a self-avowed white nationalist who once considered himself a skinhead, managed to fly under Pentagon officials’ radar for decades. He was background-checked multiple times as he rose up the ranks, eventually becoming a Coast Guard lieutenant. But what prosecutors describe as his extremist leanings, his desire to establish a “white homeland,” and his idolization of mass murderers didn’t come to light until he was investigated for ordering synthetic opioids from Mexico.

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors filed court documents that laid bare his alleged plans to carry out a domestic terror attack — a dramatic twist in a case that seemingly began as a straightforward investigation into his reported Tramadol habit.

Prosecutors say that Hasson was stockpiling weapons as part of a plot to massacre well-known Democrats and journalists. In a draft email to a neo-Nazi leader, Hasson allegedly wrote about the need for “focused violence” to establish a “white homeland,” and mentioned that he still had friends in skinhead groups. ... The fact that Hasson spent some 30 years in the U.S. military has raised new questions about the thoroughness of the Department of Defense’s background checks and the efficacy of decades-long efforts to flush out white supremacy from its ranks.

National security experts told VICE News that the department has some safeguards in place to keep alleged extremists like Hasson out of the military. But, particularly for those without high-level security clearance, those protections generally rely on self-reporting or background checks.

Oakland Teacher Strike!

As Industry Ramps Up Efforts to Kill Medicare for All, New Tool Shows 'Why We Desperately Need, and Can Absolutely Afford, #SinglePayer'

As a new interactive tool "paints a startling picture of how much Americans are spending on healthcare"—and bolsters the case for a single-payer system—new reporting sheds light on a powerful industry effort to make sure upcoming Medicare for All proposals are dead in the water.

As the New York Times lays out,

Doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and insurers are intent on strangling Medicare for All before it advances from an aspirational slogan to a legislative agenda item. They have hired a top lieutenant in Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign to spearhead the effort. And their tactics will show Democrats what they are up against as the party drifts to the left on healthcare.

They've recently joined to form the Partnership for America's Health Care Future (PAHCF), with Lauren Crawford Shaver, a veteran of Clinton's 2016 campaign, at the helm. Politico previously reported on the coalition, as did The Intercept.

The group's focus is not on extending healthcare to all Americans but keeping the Affordable Care Act, and with members including powerful groups like the American Medical Association, Federation of American Hospitals, PhRMA, and HCA, PAHCF's "reach is undeniable," as the Times notes. Seeing legislative proposals, such as Rep. Pramila Jayapal's (D-Wash.) Medicare for All Act, fast approaching, the group is ready to "step up the tempo," the Times reports.

Indeed, last week, it announced a six-figure digital campaign "to inform the American public about ways to protect and strengthen our nation's existing healthcare system, while warning them that a one-size-fits-all health care program—whether called Medicare for All, Medicare buy-in, single-payer or public option, will lead to higher taxes and less patient choice for every American family." A recent analysis, however, showed that a single-payer system would slash healthcare costs, boost systemic efficiency, and expand coverage.

Pentagon won't say if it will seek congressional approval to move billions for wall

Pentagon officials on Friday would not say whether the Defense Department will seek approval from Congress before it moves billions of dollars from its counter-drug program coffers to fund President Trump’s southern border wall.

At question is $2.5 billion from the Pentagon’s drug-interdiction program, which the White House has indicated it plans to repurpose under Trump's national emergency declaration last week to help build a barrier at the U.S.-Mexico border. ...

Should the Pentagon move the money without congressional approval, it would upset years of precedent and add to already tense pushback from lawmakers over the plan.

The Justice Department Singled Out This Man in Expanding Efforts to Strip Citizenship. A Judge Doesn’t Think the Case Is Open-and-Shut.

A Federal judge on Thursday issued a ruling that could test the strength of the Trump administration’s theory behind stripping naturalized Americans of their U.S. citizenship. At issue is the question of whether Parvez Khan, a sexagenarian native of Pakistan, became a U.S. permanent resident — and ultimately a naturalized citizen — fraudulently, by concealing the fact that he had previously received an order of deportation under a different name.

The Justice Department contends that the case is simple — that Khan changed his identity in order to game the U.S. immigration system. But Khan, who lives in Florida, argues that he never even knew that an immigration court had ordered his deportation. He says the government’s case against him can be explained by a combination of factors that were outside of his control — including the lack of a proper translator when he was detained by immigration officials in 1991 and applied for asylum, as well as a lawyer who never told him what was going on in his case.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Barksdale found that enough of the facts are disputed to allow the case to move forward to trial. The ruling was a blow — a rebuke of the government’s portrayal of an open-and-shut case — to the Trump administration’s efforts to use an initiative called Operation Janus for denaturalizing potentially thousands of U.S. citizens. ... On Thursday, Barksdale, of the Middle District of Florida, issued a 59-page order in the case, U.S. v. Parvez Manzoor Khan, denying requests by both parties to resolve the case in their favor before going to trial — what is known in legal parlance as a motion for summary judgment.

Barksdale, in her order, notes that Khan’s denial that he acted intentionally or knowingly in a deceptive manner when applying for a change in immigration status is not alone enough to withstand summary judgment. Nor is his belief that he’s always been in the United States legally. “But Khan presents more,” Barksdale writes, pointing to evidence he provided of a serious language barrier, an ineffective lawyer, and a careless interviewer for his applications for permanent residence and citizenship.

Denaturalization is increasingly looking like the next front in President Donald Trump’s war on immigrants, and the Trump administration, to the extent that it has publicized its efforts, has largely waged that war through one-sided press releases. ... Whatever Barksdale decides after the April trial, Khan’s case may be a bellwether of how successful the Trump administration’s denaturalization strategy will be.

Alabama congresswoman tackles voter suppression

Terri Sewell, an Alabama congresswoman from the civil rights crucible of Selma, is sponsoring the Voting Rights Advancement Act that will be introduced to the House of Representatives on Tuesday. ... Sewell’s bill, known as HR4, is being treated as a priority by the Democratic leadership that has regained control of the House. The party sees restoring and modernizing the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the signature reform of the civil rights era, as a crucial first step towards defending black and other minority voters from widespread Republican attempts to block access to the ballot box. ...

The legislation is intended to fill the gaping hole that was punched into the Voting Rights Act in 2013 when the US supreme court effectively gutted the protections afforded by Lyndon Johnson’s most celebrated reform. In a ruling called Shelby County v Holder the five conservative justices on the court ended almost half a century of federal oversight of states and counties, most in the Deep South, that had a track record of discriminating against black and other minority voters.

In the wake of that ruling, the removal of federal controls has unleashed a rush of voter suppression directed primarily against African American, poor, elderly and young voters. A Brennan Center database shows that 22 states have introduced restrictive voting measures since the floodgates opened six years ago. The flurry of suppression has been so intense, the center found, that last year’s midterm election cycle saw voter suppression that was “more widespread and brazen than in any other since the modern-day assault on voting began”. ...

Under the terms of the bill, some 11 states have been identified as meriting a return to federal oversight of any electoral changes they want to make. Under the modernized formula proposed in the legislation, any state that has had 15 or more violations over the past 25 years – whether by restricting early voting hours, introducing ID-card barriers, making it harder for voters to register, carrying out inaccurate purges of voting lists, or a slew of other trickery – would find themselves back under the beady eye of the US justice department for 10 years. The 11 states are: Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.

Tulsi Gabbard Educates Ignorant Women Of The View

Bernie Sanders Says 1,000,000 People Have Signed Up as Campaign Volunteers

It took less than one week, but the Bernie Sanders campaign on Monday announced that more than one million people have now volunteered to support the senator's 2020 bid. "We did it," Sanders said in an email just before noon. "We hit this first important goal we needed to reach if we're going to win this campaign. But the truth is, that goal is just a start."

While the campaign generated headlines last week by raising nearly $6 million in its first 24 hours—including approximately $600,000 in recurring monthly giving—hitting its volunteer goal in less than six days shows that there's plenty of energy among the progressive base of his supporters.

Sanders has said that key to his campaign's ability to succeed will be the creation of what has been characterized as his "grassroots army," one large enough and politically powerful enough to take on the special interests that are certain to oppose the agenda he has put forth.

Iceberg twice the size of NYC about to break off of Antarctica

An iceberg twice the size of New York City is about to break off of Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf, according to NASA.

Cracking across Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf is set to release an iceberg w/ an area about 2x the size of NYC. The splitting could result in an uncertain future for the shelf’s scientific research & human presence. See what @NASAEarth satellites captured: https://t.co/Atppp05I5j pic.twitter.com/WrI1p3bqVC

— NASA (@NASA) February 24, 2019

NASA said in a statement that there are cracks growing across the ice shelf that were first observed in October 2016. It's not clear how the ice shelf will fare following the iceberg break, according to NASA.

According to NASA, the iceberg may become the largest to break from the ice shelf since observations began in 1915. It's possible the ice shelf could become unstable following the break.

On Contact: Climate emergency with Dahr Jamail

Ban Ki-moon tells Britain: stop investing in fossil fuels overseas

Ban Ki-moon has urged Britain to stop funding fossil fuel projects overseas, in what he said would mark a test of Theresa May’s commitment to act on climate change. The former UN secretary general said he was deeply concerned that the UK’s export credit agency had provided billions of pounds in recent years to support businesses involved in oil and gas schemes around the world.

“These figures and policies are hard to reconcile with the UK’s commitments under the Paris agreement,” said Ban, referring to the international climate deal he forged in 2015 as UN chief. ...

Ban rarely comments on specific climate change policies of individual countries, and made clear he believed that the UK could continue to be a leader on the issue. But he said: “The UK now faces a crucial opportunity to live up to the prime minister’s words [on climate action] and prove it is serious about phasing out the use of fossil fuels worldwide, and not only on its own territory.”

'Shame on Trudeau': Anger Stirred as Canada's Energy Board Approves Trans Mountain Pipeline

Indigenous tribes and green campaigners were angered but not surprised Friday when Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) recommended that the government move ahead with its planned expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline—despite acknowledging that the project will negatively affect the environment. The decision paved the way for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's administration to increase fossil fuel emissions, endanger wildlife, and threaten the lives and livelihoods of the eight million people who live in the pipeline's path.

The NEB argued that the pipeline is in the public interest and provided the government with a list of 16 conditions that it must meet as it prepares to expand the 1,150 kilometer (714 mile) pipeline, tripling the amount of oil the tar sands pipeline will carry from Edmonton, Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia—but critics including Burnaby mayor Mike Hurley argued that the NEB has no intention of protecting the environment or wildlife by enforcing strict regulations on the construction. The conditions will not "prevent significant public safety risks and harms to marine life and other environmental impacts," Hurley told the Vancouver Sun.

The board noted that the Trans Mountain pipeline is likely to have a significant negative impact on the Southern resident orca, whose population in the Salish Sea off the coast of British Columbia is rapidly dwindling; on the Indigenous population in the area, especially in the event of an oil spill; and on the environment, with fossil fuel emissions rising as cargo ships carry the oil after it travels from Edmonton. Outcry from First Nations and campaigners ensued when the NEB initially approved the project in 2016, and opponents rejoiced last summer when the Federal Court of Appeals temporarily blocked construction. The court argued that Trudeau's administration and Kinder Morgan, which sold the pipeline to the government for $4.5 billion last year, had not sufficiently considered its effects on Southern orcas and indigenous tribes.

But Friday's approval—which came after what one campaigner called a rushed process with a "compressed hearing schedule" that allowed for little input from the public—was not unexpected among critics.

This is the problem with drinking the Kool-Aid served by politicians who are masters of progressive symbolism but evade substance. Once in power, they can be counted on to do substantive harm. On climate (and much else) we do not have even 1 more year to waste on these imposters. https://t.co/7mDUnhoKCa

— Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) February 22, 2019

Youth Climate Activists Demanding Green New Deal Arrested for Sit-In at #OilMoneyMitch McConnell's Office

KY youth w/ @sunrisemvmt came to ask #OilMoneyMitch to #LookUsInTheEyes and tell us that the $1.9 million he took from oil and gas CEOs is more important than a livable future for our generation. They waited outside his KY office KY all week. Group is being arrested now. pic.twitter.com/qUnFcf4g6b

— Dyanna Jaye @DJaye) February 25, 2019

Hundreds of Kentucky high school students and climate campaigners with the youth-led Sunrise Movement descended on the Capitol Hill office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday to deliver 100,000 petition signatures and stage a sit-in to make clear to lawmakers that young people want a Green New Deal for their communities and futures.

For calling on McConnell to heed public demands for federal lawmakers to pass policies that will phase out fossil fuels and combat the global climate crisis while also creating green jobs and a more just economy, more than 40 demonstrators were arrested.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Venezuela Coverage Takes Us Back to Golden Age of Lying About Latin America

A Call to Halt an Illegal Invasion of Venezuela

Psychopathic US Senator Openly Calls For Maduro To Suffer Gaddafi’s Fate

Spain would 'roundly condemn' use of force in Venezuela

Honduran Teen Fled Gangs at Home Only to Be Murdered While Stranded at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Easter Eggs and Trojan Horses in the Democrats’ Flagship Bill, H.R. 1 (“For the People Act of 2019”)

20 companies profiting the most from war

New York Times Provides Cover for Austerity Cranks

The Secret History of Fiat Brazil’s Internal Espionage Network and Collaboration With the Military Dictatorship

Don't trust the adults in the room on climate change

Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth

Russiagaters Ramp Up Narrative Management As Mueller Report Nears

A Little Night Music

Big Walter Price - Pack Fair and Square

Big Walter Price and His ThunderBirds - Calling Margie

Big Walter - Shirley Jean

Big Walter Price - San Antonio

Big Walter Price and his Thunderbirds - Hello Maria

Big Walter Price and His Thunderbirds - Junior Jumped In

Big Walter Price - Oh Ramona

Big Walter Price - Nothing But The Blues

Big Walter Price and his Thunderbirds - Thunderbird

Big Walter Price & Albert Collins - My Tears

Big Walter & his Thunderbirds - Six Weeks Of Misery